Torpedo-shaped dried dairy logs made by rubbing together nadugi cottage cheese, khavitsi butter porridge and corn flour, then shade-dried for about a week. A preserved-food staple of the Upper Adjaran winter larder, eaten with tea or beer.
Kuruti is a dried-dairy staple of Upper Adjara, made by rubbing nadugi (cottage cheese) together with khavitsi (butter-corn porridge) and corn flour, then shaping it into torpedoes or balls and shade-drying for about a week. Stored for over a year, it is part of the highland Adjaran winter-survival larder, and locals joke that it makes a person intelligent. It belongs to the Muslim Adjaran dairy-curing tradition, eaten with tea or beer.
Hard, dry and dense, with a concentrated tangy-cheese flavour and a faint corn sweetness from the flour. Grated or nibbled, it is intense and moreish, nothing like fresh cheese, more like a cured dairy biscuit.
The three components (nadugi, khavitsi, corn flour) are rubbed together by hand until they form a cohesive, dry paste; the corn flour absorbs moisture and binds, the khavitsi adds fat, and the nadugi gives the cheese flavour. The shaped pieces are shade-dried, not sun-dried, so they cure slowly without splitting, and the low moisture is what preserves them for a year.
Variations
Some households add a little dried mint. A mountain variant uses sheep's-milk nadugi.
On the Palate
Where Kuruti sits in the Georgian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 10How it's made
6 steps · 1 hour
- 110 min
Prepare 500g nadugi (cottage cheese) by draining it very dry.
- 212 min
Make a khavitsi base: toast 100g corn flour in 50g clarified butter for 3 minutes, then stir in 150ml water to a thick porridge; cool.
- 320 min
Rub the nadugi, cooled khavitsi and 100g extra corn flour together by hand until a firm, dry paste forms.
Watch outRub the three parts together until they bind into a firm, dry paste — the corn flour has to soak up enough moisture to hold, or the shapes won't cure without splitting.
- 410 min
Shape into torpedo or ball shapes about 8cm long.
- 518 min
Lay on cloth in a shaded, airy spot and dry for 7-10 days, turning daily, until hard and dry throughout.
Watch outDry in the shade, never the sun — slow shade-drying cures them evenly; direct sun dries the outside too fast and splits them.
- 65 min
Store in a cloth bag; grate or nibble as needed, with tea or beer.
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